1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
6 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
7 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
10 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
12 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
13 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
15 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
16 it understands register description.
18 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
20 * X86 general purpose registers
22 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
23 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
24 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
25 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
26 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
28 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
29 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
30 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
31 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
32 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
33 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
37 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
38 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks.
40 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
41 gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
43 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
45 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
46 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
47 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
52 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
54 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
60 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
61 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
62 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
63 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
64 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
68 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
69 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
74 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
75 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
79 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
84 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
87 * Multi-program debugging.
89 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
90 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
91 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
92 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
93 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
94 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
95 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
96 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
98 * New tracing features
100 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
102 ** Trace state variables
104 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
105 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
106 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
107 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
108 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
109 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
110 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
111 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
112 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
113 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
117 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
118 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
119 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
120 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
121 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
122 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
123 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
124 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
125 the regular trace command.
127 ** Disconnected tracing
129 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
130 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
131 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
132 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
133 connection is lost unexpectedly.
137 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
138 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
139 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
140 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
141 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
142 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
145 ** Circular trace buffer
147 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
148 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
149 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
150 not be available for all target agents.
155 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
156 the arguments to be comma-separated.
159 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
160 which only declare a variable are not shown.
163 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
164 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
167 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
168 "set script-extension" (see below).
170 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
172 record save [<FILENAME>]
173 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
174 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
176 record restore <FILENAME>
177 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
178 earlier time, for replay debugging.
180 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
183 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
184 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
190 maint info program-spaces
191 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
193 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
194 show remote interrupt-sequence
195 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
196 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
197 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
198 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
199 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
201 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
202 show remote interrupt-on-connect
203 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
204 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
207 set remotebreak [on | off]
209 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
211 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
212 Create or modify a trace state variable.
215 List trace state variables and their values.
217 delete tvariable $NAME ...
218 Delete one or more trace state variables.
221 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
222 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
224 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
225 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
227 * New expression syntax
229 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
230 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
234 set follow-exec-mode new|same
235 show follow-exec-mode
236 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
237 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
238 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
240 set default-collect EXPR, ...
242 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
243 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
244 such as registers or a critical global variable.
246 set disconnected-tracing
247 show disconnected-tracing
248 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
249 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
252 set circular-trace-buffer
253 show circular-trace-buffer
254 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
255 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
256 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
257 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
259 set script-extension off|soft|strict
260 show script-extension
261 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
262 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
263 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
264 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
266 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
268 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
269 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
270 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
271 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
272 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
273 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
274 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
277 * Python API Improvements
279 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
280 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
281 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
283 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
284 `is_base_class' attribute.
286 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
288 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
289 evaluate an expression.
294 Define a trace state variable.
297 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
300 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
303 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
306 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
310 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
312 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
313 much more reliable. In particular:
314 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
315 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
316 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
317 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
318 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
319 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
320 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
321 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
322 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
323 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
324 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
325 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
326 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
327 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
328 non-threaded programs.
330 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
331 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
332 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
335 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
337 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
338 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
339 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
340 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
341 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
343 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
344 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
345 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
346 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
347 for tracepoint actions.
349 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
350 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
352 * Process record and replay
354 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
355 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
356 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
359 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
360 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
361 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
364 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
365 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
368 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
369 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
370 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
371 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
372 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
373 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
374 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
375 the installation instructions for more information.
377 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
378 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
379 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
380 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
382 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
383 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
385 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
386 now complete on file names.
388 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
389 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
390 For instance, consider:
392 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
393 # struct example variable;
396 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
397 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
399 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
400 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
402 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
403 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
406 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
407 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
408 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
410 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
411 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
412 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
413 and simulator targets may also provide them.
418 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
421 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
422 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
423 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
426 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
427 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
430 Obtains additional operating system information
434 Read or write additional signal information.
436 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
438 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
439 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
440 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
442 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
445 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
446 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
448 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
449 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
450 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
452 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
453 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
455 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
457 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
459 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
460 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
462 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
463 list of section offsets.
465 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
466 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
467 have also been fixed.
469 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
470 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
471 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
473 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
476 template<typename T> class C { };
479 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
481 ptype C<char const *>
483 ptype C<const char *>
486 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
488 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
489 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
491 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
492 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
493 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
495 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
496 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
498 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
501 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
502 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
504 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
505 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
510 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
511 available is determined at configure time.
513 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
515 * Ada tasking support
517 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
521 Print the list of Ada tasks.
523 Print detailed information about task number N.
525 Print the task number of the current task.
527 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
529 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
530 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
532 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
534 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
535 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
536 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
537 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
538 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
539 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
542 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
543 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
546 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
547 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
548 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
549 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
552 * Multi-architecture debugging.
554 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
555 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
556 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
557 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
558 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
560 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
561 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
562 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
563 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
564 --enable-targets configure option.
566 * Non-stop mode debugging.
568 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
569 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
570 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
571 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
572 section in the user manual for more information.
574 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
575 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
576 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
577 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
578 extensions on linux targets.
580 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
582 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
583 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
584 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
585 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
586 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
587 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
588 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
589 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
590 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
592 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
594 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
596 maint set python print-stack
597 maint show python print-stack
598 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
601 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
606 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
610 Show operating system information about processes.
613 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
616 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
619 Detach from inferior number NUM.
622 Kill inferior number NUM.
627 show spu stop-on-load
628 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
630 set spu auto-flush-cache
631 show spu auto-flush-cache
632 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
633 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
635 set sh calling-convention
636 show sh calling-convention
637 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
641 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
643 set disassemble-next-line
644 show disassemble-next-line
645 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
648 set remote noack-packet
649 show remote noack-packet
650 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
651 under "New remote packets."
653 set remote query-attached-packet
654 show remote query-attached-packet
655 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
657 set remote read-siginfo-object
658 show remote read-siginfo-object
659 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
662 set remote write-siginfo-object
663 show remote write-siginfo-object
664 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
667 set remote reverse-continue
668 show remote reverse-continue
669 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
671 set remote reverse-step
672 show remote reverse-step
673 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
675 set displaced-stepping
676 show displaced-stepping
677 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
678 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
679 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
683 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
685 maint set internal-error
686 maint show internal-error
687 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
689 maint set internal-warning
690 maint show internal-warning
691 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
696 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
698 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
699 show multiple-symbols
700 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
701 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
702 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
704 set breakpoint always-inserted
705 show breakpoint always-inserted
706 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
707 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
708 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
710 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
711 show arm fallback-mode
712 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
714 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
715 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
716 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
717 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
719 set disable-randomization
720 show disable-randomization
721 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
722 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
723 multiple debugging sessions.
727 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
732 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
733 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
734 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
735 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
737 set target-wide-charset
738 show target-wide-charset
739 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
740 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
742 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
744 set tcp connect-timeout
745 show tcp connect-timeout
746 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
747 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
748 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
750 set libthread-db-search-path
751 show libthread-db-search-path
752 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
755 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
756 show schedule-multiple
757 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
762 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
763 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
764 affecting correctness.
766 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
767 show interactive-mode
768 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
769 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
770 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
771 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
772 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
777 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
778 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
779 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
783 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
784 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
785 alias for the `fork' command.
788 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
789 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
790 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
793 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
794 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
795 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
799 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
800 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
801 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
804 * New native configurations
806 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
808 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
812 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
813 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
814 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
817 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
818 (mingw32ce) debugging.
824 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
826 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
828 * New native configurations
830 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
831 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
835 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
836 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
838 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
840 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
841 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
842 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
843 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
845 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
846 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
848 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
851 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
852 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
853 and in inlined functions.
855 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
856 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
857 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
859 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
861 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
862 registers on PowerPC targets.
864 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
865 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
867 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
868 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
870 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
871 extended-remote mode.
873 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
874 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
875 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
876 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
878 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
879 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
880 target architectures.
882 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
883 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
884 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
885 stored in two consecutive float registers.
887 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
890 * Improved support for debugging Ada
891 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
893 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
894 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
895 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
896 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
898 - Improved command completion in Ada
901 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
906 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
907 show print frame-arguments
908 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
909 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
914 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
921 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
930 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
933 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
937 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
939 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
941 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
942 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
943 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
945 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
946 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
947 -Bsymbolic linker option.
949 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
950 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
953 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
954 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
956 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
957 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
959 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
961 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
962 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
963 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
965 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
966 automatically displayed as character or string data.
968 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
969 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
972 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
973 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
974 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
976 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
979 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
980 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
981 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
983 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
985 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
987 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
988 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
989 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
991 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
992 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
994 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
995 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
996 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
997 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
998 Windows and SymbianOS).
1000 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1001 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1003 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1004 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1010 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1011 when debugging using remote targets.
1013 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1014 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1015 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1016 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1017 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1018 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1019 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1021 set breakpoint auto-hw
1022 show breakpoint auto-hw
1023 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1024 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1025 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1026 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1027 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1028 including "next" and "finish".
1031 catch exception unhandled
1032 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1035 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1039 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1040 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1041 an alias to "set sysroot".
1044 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1045 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1048 * New native configurations
1050 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1053 unset tdesc filename
1055 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1056 not query the target for its built-in description.
1060 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1061 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1062 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1064 * New remote packets
1067 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1068 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1070 qXfer:features:read:
1071 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1076 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1077 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1079 qXfer:libraries:read:
1080 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1081 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1082 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1083 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1087 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1095 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1096 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1097 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1098 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1100 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1103 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1104 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1113 * Other removed features
1120 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1127 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1132 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1133 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1138 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1139 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1141 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1143 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1144 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1145 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1146 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1148 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1150 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1151 in debugging information.
1155 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1156 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1158 set mips stack-arg-size
1159 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1161 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1163 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1168 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1170 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1171 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1172 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1174 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1175 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1178 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1179 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1181 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1182 stub provides the required support.
1184 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1185 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1190 unset substitute-path
1191 show substitute-path
1192 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1193 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1194 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1195 between compilation and debugging.
1199 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1200 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1201 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1205 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1207 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1208 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1210 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1212 * New remote packets
1215 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1216 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1217 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1218 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1222 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1223 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1225 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1226 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1227 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1232 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1234 * Removed remote packets
1237 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1238 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1240 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1244 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1246 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1250 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1251 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1253 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1255 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1257 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1258 previously saved state.
1260 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1262 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1264 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1265 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1267 info forks List forks of the user program that
1268 are available to be debugged.
1270 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1271 forks of the user program that are
1272 available to be debugged.
1274 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1275 that are available to be debugged (and
1276 kill the forked process).
1278 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1279 that are available to be debugged (and
1280 allow the process to continue).
1284 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1286 * Improved Windows host support
1288 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1289 native console support, and remote communications using either
1290 network sockets or serial ports.
1292 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1294 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1295 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1296 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1297 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1298 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1299 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1303 The ARM rdi-share module.
1305 The Netware NLM debug server.
1307 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1309 * New native configurations
1311 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1312 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1316 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1318 * New command line options
1320 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1321 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1322 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1323 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1324 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1325 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1326 with the --command (-x) option.
1328 * Deprecated commands removed
1330 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1334 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1335 othernames set arm disassembler
1336 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1337 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1338 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1341 * New BSD user-level threads support
1343 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1344 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1347 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1348 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1349 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1351 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1352 are not yet supported.
1354 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1355 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1357 * REMOVED configurations and files
1359 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1360 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1361 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1363 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1365 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1366 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1369 * VAX floating point support
1371 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1373 * User-defined command support
1375 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1376 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1377 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1379 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1381 * New command line option
1383 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1386 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1388 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1389 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1390 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1391 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1392 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1394 * Internationalization
1396 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1397 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1398 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1402 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1403 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1404 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1406 * New native configurations
1408 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1412 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1413 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1415 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1417 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1418 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1419 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1422 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1423 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1424 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1434 powerpc bdm protocol
1436 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1437 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1439 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1441 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1442 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1443 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1444 permanently REMOVED.
1453 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1455 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1457 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1458 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1461 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1463 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1464 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1465 IRIX long double values).
1469 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1470 command. This problem has been fixed.
1472 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1474 * Fix for ``many threads''
1476 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1477 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1480 ptrace: No such process.
1481 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1483 This problem has been fixed.
1485 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1487 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1490 * New ``start'' command.
1492 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1494 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1496 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1497 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1498 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1500 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1501 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1502 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1503 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1504 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1505 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1506 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1507 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1508 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1510 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1512 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1513 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1514 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1515 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1516 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1518 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1519 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1520 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1522 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1524 * New native configurations
1526 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1527 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1528 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1529 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1530 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1531 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1532 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1534 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1536 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1537 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1538 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1539 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1540 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1541 work, was also included.
1543 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1544 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1554 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1555 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1557 * REMOVED configurations and files
1559 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1560 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1561 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1562 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1563 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1564 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1565 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1566 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1567 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1568 sonymips mips-sony-*
1569 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1571 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1573 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1575 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1576 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1577 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1578 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1581 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1583 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1584 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1585 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1586 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1587 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1588 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1591 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1593 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1595 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1596 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1597 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1599 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1601 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1602 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1604 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1606 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1607 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1608 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1610 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1612 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1613 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1615 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1617 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1618 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1619 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1621 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1623 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1624 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1625 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1627 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1629 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1631 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1632 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1634 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1636 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1637 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1638 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1639 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1641 * Revised SPARC target
1643 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1644 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1645 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1646 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1647 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1651 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1652 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1653 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1656 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1658 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1659 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1662 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1664 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1665 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1666 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1667 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1668 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1669 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1670 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1671 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1672 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1674 * New native configurations
1676 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1677 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1678 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1679 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1680 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1682 * New debugging protocols
1684 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1686 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1688 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1689 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1690 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1692 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1694 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1695 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1696 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1697 permanently REMOVED.
1699 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1700 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1701 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1702 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1703 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1704 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1705 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1706 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1707 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1708 sonymips mips-sony-*
1709 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1711 * REMOVED configurations and files
1713 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1714 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1715 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1716 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1717 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1718 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1719 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1720 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1721 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1722 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1723 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1724 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1725 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1726 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1727 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1728 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1729 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1731 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1735 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1736 integrated into GDB.
1738 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1740 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1741 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1742 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1745 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1746 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1747 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1751 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1752 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1753 remote protocol documentation for details.
1755 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1757 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1758 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1759 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1762 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1764 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1765 per-thread variables.
1767 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1769 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1770 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1772 * Separate debug info.
1774 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1775 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1776 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1777 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1778 and optional debug files.
1780 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1782 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1783 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1786 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1787 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1791 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1792 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1793 considered "useable".
1795 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1797 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1798 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1801 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1803 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1804 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1806 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1808 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1809 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1812 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1814 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1815 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1819 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1820 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1821 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1822 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1823 data, for more informative profiling results.
1825 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1827 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1828 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1829 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1831 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1834 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1835 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1836 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1837 in a subsequent -var-update.
1839 * New native configurations.
1841 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1843 * Multi-arched targets.
1845 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1846 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1848 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1850 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1851 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1852 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1853 permanently REMOVED.
1855 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1856 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1857 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1858 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1859 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1860 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1861 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1862 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1863 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1864 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1865 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1866 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1868 * REMOVED configurations and files
1871 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1872 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1873 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1874 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1875 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1876 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1878 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1879 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1880 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1881 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1882 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1883 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1885 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1887 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1888 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1889 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1890 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1891 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1893 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1895 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1897 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1898 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1899 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1900 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1901 shared libs like mad''.
1903 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1905 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1906 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1907 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1908 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1910 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1912 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1913 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1916 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1917 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1919 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1920 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1922 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1923 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1924 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1925 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1927 * Multi-arched targets.
1929 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1930 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1932 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1933 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1934 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1938 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1941 * New native configurations
1943 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1944 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1945 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1946 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1948 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1950 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1951 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1952 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1953 permanently REMOVED.
1955 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1956 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1957 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1958 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1959 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1960 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1961 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1962 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1963 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1964 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1966 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1967 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1969 * OBSOLETE languages
1971 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1973 * REMOVED configurations and files
1975 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1976 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1977 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1978 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1979 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1981 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1983 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1985 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1986 commands. The default is 1024.
1988 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1990 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1992 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1994 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1995 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1996 from a file into memory (restore).
1998 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2000 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2001 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2002 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2004 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2012 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2013 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2014 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2016 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2017 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2018 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2020 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2021 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2022 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2024 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2025 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2026 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2028 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2030 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2032 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2033 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2034 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2035 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2036 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2037 (notably embedded) targets.
2039 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2041 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2042 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2043 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2044 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2046 * New command line option
2048 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2050 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2052 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2053 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2054 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2055 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2056 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2057 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2058 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2059 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2060 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2061 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2063 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2065 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2066 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2068 * New native configurations
2070 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2071 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2072 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2073 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2077 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2079 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2081 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2082 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2083 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2084 permanently REMOVED.
2086 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2087 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2088 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2089 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2090 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2092 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2094 * REMOVED configurations and files
2096 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2098 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2099 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2100 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2101 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2102 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2103 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2104 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2105 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2106 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2107 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2108 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2110 * Changes to command line processing
2112 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2113 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2115 * Changes to key bindings
2117 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2119 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2121 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2123 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2126 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2128 Numerous documentation fixes.
2130 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2132 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2134 * New native configurations
2136 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2137 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2138 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2139 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2140 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2141 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2145 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2147 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2149 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2151 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2152 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2153 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2154 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2155 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2157 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2158 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2159 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2160 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2161 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2162 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2163 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2164 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2166 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2167 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2169 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2170 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2171 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2172 permanently REMOVED.
2174 * REMOVED configurations and files
2176 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2177 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2179 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2183 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2185 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2186 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2191 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2193 * The MI enabled by default.
2195 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2196 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2197 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2198 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2199 which is now deprecated.
2201 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2203 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2204 main features are supported:
2206 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2208 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2211 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2213 - a Pascal expression parser.
2215 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2217 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2219 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2221 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2222 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2224 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2226 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2228 * Changes in completion.
2230 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2231 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2232 users expect at the shell prompt.
2234 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2235 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2236 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2237 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2238 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2239 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2240 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2242 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2244 * New platform-independent commands:
2246 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2247 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2248 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2250 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2252 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2253 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2254 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2256 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2258 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2259 multi-threaded programs though.
2261 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2263 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2265 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2266 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2269 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2271 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2272 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2273 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2274 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2275 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2278 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2279 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2280 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2282 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2284 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2285 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2287 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2288 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2291 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2292 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2293 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2294 a given linear address.
2296 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2297 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2298 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2300 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2302 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2304 * Changes in documentation.
2306 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2307 Documentation License.
2309 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2312 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2314 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2317 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2318 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2319 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2321 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2323 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2324 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2325 contents of this file.
2329 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2331 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2333 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2335 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2336 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2337 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2338 greater level of detail.
2340 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2342 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2343 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2344 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2347 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2349 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2350 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2351 machines ``out of the box''.
2353 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2354 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2355 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2356 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2357 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2359 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2360 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2361 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2362 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2363 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2365 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2366 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2369 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2372 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2373 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2374 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2375 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2377 * New native configurations
2379 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2380 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2384 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2385 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2386 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2387 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2389 * OBSOLETE configurations
2391 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2392 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2394 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2397 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2398 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2399 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2400 be permanently REMOVED.
2402 * Gould support removed
2404 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2406 * New features for SVR4
2408 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2409 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2410 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2412 * Many C++ enhancements
2414 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2415 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2417 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2419 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2420 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2421 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2422 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2424 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2425 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2427 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2429 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2430 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2431 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2433 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2434 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2436 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2438 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2439 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2440 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2442 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2444 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2445 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2446 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2448 * ``apropos'' command added.
2450 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2451 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2452 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2456 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2457 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2458 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2459 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2460 enabled by configuring with:
2462 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2464 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2466 * New native configurations
2468 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2469 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2470 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2474 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2475 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2476 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2478 * OBSOLETE configurations
2480 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2482 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2483 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2484 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2485 be permanently REMOVED.
2489 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2490 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2491 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2492 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2493 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2494 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2495 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2500 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2502 * set extension-language
2504 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2505 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2506 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2507 set extension-language .c c++
2508 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2509 and their associated languages.
2511 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2513 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2514 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2515 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2519 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2520 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2522 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2523 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2525 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2526 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2527 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2528 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2529 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2530 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2531 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2532 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2534 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2535 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2536 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2537 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2541 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2542 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2543 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2544 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2545 for xdb and dbx commands.
2549 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2550 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2551 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2553 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2554 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2555 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2557 * Debugging across forks
2559 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2564 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2565 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2566 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2568 * GDB remote protocol additions
2570 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2571 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2572 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2573 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2575 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2576 full 64-bit address. The command
2578 set remoteaddresssize 32
2580 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2581 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2584 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2585 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2587 maint packet heythere
2589 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2590 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2593 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2594 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2595 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2597 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2599 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2600 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2601 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2603 * mask-address variable for Mips
2605 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2606 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2607 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2609 * Higher serial baud rates
2611 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2612 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2613 to achieve all of these rates.)
2617 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2618 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2621 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2623 * New native configurations
2625 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2626 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2627 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2628 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2629 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2630 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2631 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2635 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2636 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2637 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2638 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2639 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2640 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2641 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2642 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2643 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2644 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2645 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2647 * New debugging protocols
2649 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2650 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2651 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2652 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2653 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2654 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2658 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2659 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2664 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2665 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2667 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2669 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2670 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2671 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2673 * Live range splitting
2675 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2676 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2677 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2681 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2682 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2686 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2687 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2688 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2693 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2698 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2699 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2700 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2701 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2702 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2703 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2707 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2708 the symbol at the specified address.
2712 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2713 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2714 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2715 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2716 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2720 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2721 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2722 of most MIPS variants.
2726 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2727 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2728 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2732 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2733 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2734 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2735 the possible architectures.
2737 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2739 * New native configurations
2741 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2742 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2743 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2744 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2745 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2746 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2750 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2751 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2752 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2753 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2754 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2756 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2760 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2761 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2762 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2763 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2764 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2768 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2770 * Windows 95/NT native
2772 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2773 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2774 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2775 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2776 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2778 * dont-repeat command
2780 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2781 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2782 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2783 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2785 * Send break instead of ^C
2787 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2788 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2789 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2791 * Remote protocol timeout
2793 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2794 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2795 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2797 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2799 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2800 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2801 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2802 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2803 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2805 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2806 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2807 automatically on hpux10.
2809 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2811 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2813 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2815 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2816 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2817 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2818 every character. The default value is 1050.
2820 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2822 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2823 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2824 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2825 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2826 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2827 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2829 * Speedups for remote debugging
2831 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2832 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2833 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2835 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2837 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2838 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2840 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2842 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2844 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2845 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2847 * Remote targets use caching
2849 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2850 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2851 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2852 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2853 off' turns the the data cache off.
2855 * Remote targets may have threads
2857 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2858 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2859 gdb/remote.c for details.
2863 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2864 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2865 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2866 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2867 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2868 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2869 sequence is something like
2871 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2873 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2877 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2878 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2879 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2880 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2881 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2882 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2883 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2884 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2888 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2889 but does simplify configuration and building.
2893 GDB now supports hpux10.
2895 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2897 * New native configurations
2899 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2900 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2901 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2902 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2906 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2907 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2908 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2909 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2912 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2914 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2915 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2916 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2917 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2918 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2920 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2922 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2923 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2926 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2928 To execute the command use:
2931 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2932 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2933 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2935 * New `if' and `while' commands
2937 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2938 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2939 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2940 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2941 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2942 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2943 if the expression is zero.
2945 * Fortran source language mode
2947 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2948 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2949 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2950 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2953 * Better HPUX support
2955 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2956 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2957 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2958 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2959 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2965 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2966 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2972 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2973 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2976 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2977 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2979 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2981 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2982 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2983 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2984 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2985 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2986 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2988 * New DOS host serial code
2990 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2991 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2994 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2996 * New "complete" command
2998 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2999 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3001 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3003 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3004 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3006 * Breakpoint hit counts
3008 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3009 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3010 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3011 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3012 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3015 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3017 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3018 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3019 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3021 * Shared library breakpoints
3023 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3024 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3026 * Hardware watchpoints
3028 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3029 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3031 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3035 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3036 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3038 * Improved Irix 5 support
3040 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3042 * Improved HPPA support
3044 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3046 * New native configurations
3048 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3049 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3050 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3051 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3055 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3056 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3059 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3061 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3062 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3066 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3067 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3069 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3071 * Irix 5 is now supported
3075 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3076 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3077 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3078 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3079 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3082 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3084 * User visible changes:
3088 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3089 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3090 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3091 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3092 debugging info for the mips target).
3094 * DEC Alpha native support
3096 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3097 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3098 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3099 Alpha-specific notes.
3101 * Preliminary thread implementation
3103 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3105 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3107 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3108 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3111 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3113 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3114 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3115 call methods, ...etc.
3117 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3119 * User visible changes:
3121 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3122 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3123 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3124 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3126 Filename completion now works.
3128 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3129 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3130 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3132 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3133 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3134 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3135 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3136 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3140 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3141 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3144 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3148 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3149 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3150 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3154 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3155 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3156 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3157 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3158 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3162 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3163 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3164 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3166 * New targets supported
3168 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3169 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3170 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3171 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3172 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3174 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3175 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3176 GO32 memory extender.
3178 * New remote protocols
3180 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3182 * New source languages supported
3184 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3185 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3186 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3189 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3191 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3193 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3194 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3195 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3196 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3197 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3198 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3200 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3202 * Faster and better demangling
3204 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3205 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3206 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3207 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3208 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3209 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3212 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3213 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3214 compiler does not actually implement.
3216 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3218 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3219 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3220 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3221 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3222 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3223 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3226 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3227 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3229 * Improved configure script
3231 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3232 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3233 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3234 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3236 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3237 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3238 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3239 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3240 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3241 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3243 * Documentation improvements
3245 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3246 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3247 before submitting changes.
3249 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3250 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3251 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3252 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3253 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3255 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3256 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3257 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3258 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3259 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3260 around this problem.
3264 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3265 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3266 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3269 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3270 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3272 * New native hosts supported
3274 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3275 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3277 * New targets supported
3279 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3281 * New file formats supported
3283 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3284 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3288 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3290 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3291 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3293 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3294 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3295 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3297 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3298 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3300 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3301 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3302 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3305 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3306 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3307 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3308 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3309 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3311 * Internal improvements
3313 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3314 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3316 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3317 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3318 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3319 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3320 shared code that handles any of them.
3322 * New command line options
3324 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3328 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3329 General Public License.
3331 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3333 * Host/native/target split
3335 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3336 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3337 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3338 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3339 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3341 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3342 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3343 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3344 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3345 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3346 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3347 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3349 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3350 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3351 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3353 * New hosts supported
3355 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3356 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3357 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3359 * New targets supported
3361 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3362 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3364 * New native hosts supported
3366 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3367 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3368 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3370 * New file formats supported
3372 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3373 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3374 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3378 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3379 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3380 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3382 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3384 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3385 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3386 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3387 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3391 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3392 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3393 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3395 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3399 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3400 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3403 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3404 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3406 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3407 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3408 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3409 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3410 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3411 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3413 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3414 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3415 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3416 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3420 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3421 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3422 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3423 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3424 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3426 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3427 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3428 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3429 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3433 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3434 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3435 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3436 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3437 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3438 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3439 each instruction being stepped through.
3441 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3442 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3444 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3445 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3446 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3447 processor with a serial port.
3451 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3452 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3453 supported, and what files each one uses.
3457 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3458 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3459 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3460 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3462 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3463 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3464 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3465 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3469 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3470 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3471 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3472 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3473 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3474 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3476 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3479 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3481 * Better support for C++ function names
3483 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3484 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3485 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3486 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3487 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3489 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3490 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3491 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3492 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3493 for the list of formats.
3495 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3497 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3498 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3499 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3500 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3501 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3502 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3505 * New 'maintenance' command
3507 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3508 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3509 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3511 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3512 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3513 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3514 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3515 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3516 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3518 The following commands are new:
3520 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3521 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3522 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3524 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3526 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3527 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3528 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3529 read after argv processing.
3531 * New hosts supported
3533 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3535 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3537 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3538 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3539 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3540 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3541 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3544 * New targets supported
3546 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3548 * More smarts about finding #include files
3550 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3551 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3552 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3553 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3554 the one that contains your sources.
3556 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3557 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3558 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3560 * Interesting infernals change
3562 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3563 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3564 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3565 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3567 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3569 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3570 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3571 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3573 See the ChangeLog for details.
3575 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3577 * New machines supported (host and target)
3579 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3581 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3583 * New malloc package
3585 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3586 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3587 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3588 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3589 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3590 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3594 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3595 'help info proc' for details.
3597 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3599 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3600 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3603 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3605 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3606 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3607 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3608 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3609 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3610 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3612 * Cross byte order fixes
3614 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3615 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3617 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3619 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3620 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3621 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3622 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3623 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3624 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3625 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3626 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3627 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3628 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3630 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3631 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3632 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3633 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3635 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3636 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3637 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3640 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3642 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3643 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3644 shared across multiple host platforms.
3646 * longjmp() handling
3648 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3649 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3650 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3651 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3655 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3656 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3661 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3662 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3663 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3665 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3667 * New machines supported (host and target)
3669 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3671 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3672 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3674 * New machines supported (target)
3676 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3680 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3681 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3682 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3684 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3685 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3686 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3687 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3688 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3691 * New features for SVR4
3693 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3694 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3695 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3697 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3698 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3699 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3701 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3702 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3704 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3706 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3707 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3708 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3709 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3710 same code linked statically.
3714 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3715 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3716 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3717 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3718 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3719 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3723 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3724 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3725 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3728 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3730 * New machines supported (host and target)
3732 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3733 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3734 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3736 * Almost SCO Unix support
3738 We had hoped to support:
3739 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3740 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3741 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3742 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3744 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3746 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3747 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3748 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3749 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3754 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3755 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3756 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3760 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3761 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3762 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3764 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3766 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3767 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3768 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3770 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3771 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3772 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3773 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3776 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3777 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3778 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3779 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3782 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3783 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3786 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3787 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3788 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3791 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3793 * Improved configuration
3795 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3796 Porting BFD is simpler.
3800 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3801 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3802 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3803 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3807 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3809 * New host supported (not target)
3811 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3814 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3816 * Multiple source language support
3818 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3819 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3820 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3821 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3822 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3823 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3827 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3828 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3829 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3830 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3832 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3833 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3834 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3836 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3837 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3841 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3842 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3843 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3844 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3847 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3849 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3850 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3851 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3852 examining core files.
3856 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3859 * New machines supported (host and target)
3861 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3862 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3863 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3865 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3867 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3869 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3871 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3872 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3873 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3875 * New remote interfaces
3881 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3885 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3887 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3888 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3889 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3890 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3891 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3892 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3893 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3894 stub on the target system.
3896 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3898 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3899 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3900 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3902 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3903 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3906 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3908 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3909 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3911 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3912 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3913 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3915 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3916 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3917 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3918 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3920 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3921 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3922 it is already running. Default is ON.
3924 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3925 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3926 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3927 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3930 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3931 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3932 or the value of the environment variable
3935 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3936 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3939 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3940 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3941 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3943 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3944 history expansion will be performed on
3945 command line input. The default is OFF.
3947 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3948 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3949 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3951 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3952 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3953 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3956 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3957 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3958 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3961 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3962 ``set width'' instead.
3964 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3965 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3966 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3967 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3969 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3972 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3975 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3978 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3981 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3983 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3984 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3985 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3989 * Support for Shared Libraries
3991 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3992 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3993 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3994 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3995 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3996 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3997 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3998 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4000 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4001 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4002 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4004 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4009 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4010 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4011 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4012 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4013 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4014 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4016 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4018 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4020 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4021 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4022 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4025 * C++ multiple inheritance
4027 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4030 * C++ exception handling
4032 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4033 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4034 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4037 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4038 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4039 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4041 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4042 current stack frame.
4045 * Minor command changes
4047 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4048 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4049 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4051 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4052 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4053 frames without printing.
4055 * New directory command
4057 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4058 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4059 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4060 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4061 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4063 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4065 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4068 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4069 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4070 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4071 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils-gdb.git / blob